Des Moines City Council set to vote on East Village project

The Des Moines City Council will vote tonight on approval of a $3 million federal flood recovery grant to a commercial and residential building planned for the East Village.

Jim Cownie and Tim Rypma's East Village Growth Partners LLC plans to pay $400,000 for city-owned property at 350 E. Locust St. and build a $9 million, five-story mixed-use structure.

Cownie's business office would occupy the top floor. The first floor also would be used for commercial space. The remainder of the building would be developed into 20 apartments, with 11 units available to households below 80 percent of median income for a period of 10 years.

In June, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development selected the project as one of several in Iowa that will receive disaster recovery funds under its Community Development Block Grant program. The federal funds will be used for the housing units and not the commercial spaces, according to a city document.

The council also will be asked to approve plans for financing the project as well as a final design conceptual plan, which includes a balcony on the fourth floor.

According to a staff report, the developers will borrow $3.1 million, use enterprise zone tax credits and a sales tax rebate, and rely on their own equity for the commercial spaces.

The $400,000 from the sale of the city property will be used to assist the Ingersoll Square phase three project, a residential and commercial development near Ingersoll Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.